


Under the Moonlight

by Bat_Snacks (Illusionary_Oblivion_25)



Category: Batman - All Media Types
Genre: ...maybe Pyreverse..., 2nd-person POV, Gen, I'm kinda obsessed with this guy, Pyreverse, character introspection, da fuq was I thinking, dreamscape, unclear timeframe, uses headcanons
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-07
Updated: 2018-02-07
Packaged: 2019-03-14 23:04:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 927
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13600320
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Illusionary_Oblivion_25/pseuds/Bat_Snacks
Summary: A chance meeting, or the manifestation of one's destiny?





	Under the Moonlight

You put one foot in front of the other, thoughtlessly following the pull tugging at your ribcage, guiding you between the desiccated corn stalks. Where it’s taking you, what awaits you at the end… these concerns fall away moments after they arise. There’s no need to worry; you know this path, you’ve walked it countless times before, every night for as long as you can remember.

It’s almost comforting, now.

The moon is high overhead, but hangs heavy in the sky like a bloated pearl –huge and silver-white and so, so round. It’s always full in this cornfield, like time has no power here. You wonder, momentarily, why that is. What is this place that you visit so often, yet know so little about? Have you been here before, in the daylight?

A whisper dances along the breeze, curling around you like a welcoming embrace. It draws you deeper into the field, wrapping tighter with every step. There are no words in that whisper, not that you can truly hear, yet you know what it’s telling you.

_Come… come closer…_

You obey the summons. How can you resist the call? It breathes into your ears, your skin, your bones, and seeps into your brain to spread its fingers between every other thought.

You’re much further into the cornfield than you’ve ever been before. The stalks have begun to thin, steadily giving way to a circular clearing populated by a single dead tree, just a few feet away from where you are. You don’t hesitate, stepping out under the unbroken moonlight.

Curiosity flares in the back of your mind. What happens now? You didn’t even know there was a clearing in the seemingly-endless field; you thought it continued forever, unbroken and unkempt… It isn’t unguarded, though.

Standing tall over the corn, over you, is the sentinel. It’s thin and weathered, a figure of rough fabric and straw and wooden bones, a crown of feathers atop its head. Its arms are tied to the blackened branches, its legs to the trunk, and its head hangs limply.

_Come closer…_

Your breath is stolen away, replaced by the whisper. Your lips move, forming the words you hear, again and again as your heart pounds against your ribs, against your throat. Once more, you obey, picking your way over to the sentinel with more care than when you tiptoe through your home, late at night, hoping to avoid the ire of the monster under your caretaker’s skin. Stopping just in front of the bound guardian, you look up at its face…

The sentinel’s eyes are opened wide, flickers of warm orange sparks deep in the blackness, and staring right back at you. Its mouth, stitched together by a haphazard zigzag, curls upward.

_Untie me._

For a moment, you wonder if you should, but your hands move on their own accord, reaching for the knot holding the sentinel’s feet captive. As they move, you wonder why you wondered. The old rope slowly gives up on its purpose under your fumbling fingers, and you look back up at the sentinel, unsure if you’re waiting for another request or if you simply want reassurance that you did the right thing. The orange glimmers dance like fire, before flicking to one of its wrists.

_My hands…_

The sentinel watches you as you begin to climb the tree, its head turning like that of an owl to keep you in its sight. Once you’ve torn away the rotten cord, you climb back down, and step back from the sentinel, giving it space to move. It pulls away from its bonds, stretching and twisting in ways that would usually make your stomach turn.

_Well done._

You freeze, blinking up at the field’s guardian in awe. You’ve never heard those words directed towards you, before… not since you were very little. The sentinel reaches out for you with one of its twig-bone hands; without thinking, you step into its touch, nearly weeping at the sensation. Its other hand joins the first, gliding over every part of your head and shoulders, sweeping away the tension.

_I waited for you… I’ve waited so long…_

You’ve walked through the cornfield every night but you’ve never seen its guardian before, and yet it pets your head like you’re something sweet, as if you’re something precious, wooden fingers threading comfortingly through your hair. You’re confused… it was waiting?

_You kept going in circles… couldn’t hear me… You hear me now, though._

It croons, crouching down to wrap you in its arms. You lean into it, mind blank and chest tight.

_Let me repay you…_

You frown, sure that there’s nothing the sentinel can do to repay what you’ve done. Feeling you start to pull away, the sentinel’s grip tightens around you.

_Let me… let me do it…_

Your already-feeble resistance crumbles, and you allow it to hold you tightly; its heartbeat thunders under your ear. Maybe… maybe there was something it could do… You can feel the growing chuckle before you hear it.

_Yes… yes, I can do that. Sleep, now… It will be done by the time you wake up._

Darkness edges into your awareness, and you find your eyelids becoming heavy. For a moment, you don’t want to sleep… you don’t want to be left alone to the blind oblivion… The sentinel hums, breathing a lullaby into your brain. Soon enough, your consciousness leaves you.

_Hush, little baby, don’t you fret… Scarecrow’s gonna get them yet… And if those bullies don’t lose their heads… Scarecrow will just have to kill them dead…_

 


End file.
